The sun was setting in a brilliant, warm tone and I was fortunate enough to be standing right in this spot. Taken with a Nikon D5100 at f25 and 1/13 second. ISO was set at a low 125.

The image was fine as it was, with beautiful reds and yellows running together over a steel gray sea. But I was looking for something a little different, something more reflective of my mood. In terms of the mood, I found myself focusing on the sole boat in the bay.

I ran the file into Topaz Labs’ brand new program, B&W Effects (which I’m evaluating for 30 days – so far, I like what I see and the introductory price is only $30. For more information, see here. Don’t forget to enter the code: bwandbeyond… if you’re thinking of buying it.) I used one of the filter presets under the Sepia category. From there, I nudged the program’s easy to use sliders and other adjustments to get this exactly the way I wanted. Much like Nik program’s U-Point technology and Apple Aperture’s brushes, Topaz has introduced the ability to selectively add or take away adjustments. The brushes are edge aware which is super nice. Here, I brought up the water and added some shimmer to give it a bit of golden glow. Finally, I darkened the edges via the vignetting tool.

We had seven glorious, perfect weather days on the beach, so expect more oceanside shots to follow.